Chương 536: Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty-One - Time and Bride Wait for No Bun

It took half an hour, but eventually it was determined that none of the contents of the box were dangerous. Well, not dangerous in any sort of obvious way. We were still in the office of the Property Deed Archive. In front of us, on the table, the contents of Rainnewt's gift were laid out like the evidence of a crime. Amaryllis had been right earlier when she listed everything out. There was a letter, a clock, a book, and a small bouquet of flowers.

"So... what do we start with?" I asked.

"I believe it best that we start with the letter," Desiree replied.

"It seems as though it's addressed to you, captain." I chewed on my lip, because she wasn't wrong. The letter wasn't in an envelope; it was just a single sheet of thick, soft paper, folded into thirds and sealed shut with a dollop of wax. The other had ' To Bunch' written on it in a quick cursive font.

"May I?" Caprica asked. I gestured, and she carefully plucked the letter from the table, turning it this way and that.

"This vellum's from the Trenton Flats," she said.

"Huh." I peered at it.

"How can you tell?"

"They make the best vellum in the known world," Caprica explained.

"The hides of Trentonian sheep are well-suited for it, and their crafters have unparalleled skill in its manufacture." She paused.

"But unfortunately, it doesn't mean much. The Trenten flats export this to everyone in the region. I'm sure you could buy something similar here in Port Royal. The ink... seems like normal ink to me." The princess shook her head and flipped the letter over before presenting it to me.

"Thanks," I said. I shot a burst of Cleaning magic through the letter. I'd heard stories about poisons and stuff before, and while no one had found anything... well, I wouldn't put it past Rainnewt to discover some whole new kind of poison. That seemed like the kind of person he was. Pinching my tongue between my lips, I popped the seal off the letter, then carefully unfolded it. The page was mostly empty, with only a few short paragraphs of dense, somewhat sloppy handwriting.

Dearest Broccoli, I hope this letter finds you well. I imagined that you and your companions would be around for the wedding, and once I confirmed your presence I decided to postpone any plans I had with regards to the local dragons. It seems unwise to provoke them in any case. Combatting one of them would be a monumental task. So many at once would be foolish, and I would like to think of myself as not too foolish. In any case, enjoy the wedding. Enclosed are a few small gifts.

Flowers and a book for the bride, and a clock for you. It's counting down to something special. The book is a hint, and perhaps the flowers are as well. Good luck, fellow Earthling! -Rainnewt I tilted the letter so that my friends could read it, then when it started to get a little crowded, I just handed it over to Amaryllis. She squinted at it for a moment, then leveled a flat stare at me.

"I have no idea what this says," she said.

"Huh? Oh, it's in English?" I asked. The letters were... well, English.

"It's in an ugly, blocky text, yes," Amaryllis said. I laughed.

"I think that's just Rainnewt's handwriting. It's a little ugly, but I guess he's never used a quill before." I cleared my throat and read the letter aloud so that everyone was on the same page. Calamity was the first to speak when I reached the end.

"Guy's full of himself."

"He's an ass," Amaryllis agreed. I glanced over to the others to see their reactions, then noticed that Awen was poking at the clock.

"Did you find something?" I asked.

"Well, it's like the letter said," Awen mused.

"It's not a clock in the... traditional sense. It's a timer." We all crowded closer to get a better look. The face of the timer had three hands - one hand moved at the speed of a second hand, although it ran in reverse. The other two were sized like a minute and an hour hand, and as I watched as carefully as I could, I saw that the minute hand was also slowly rotating backwards. Rather than being numbered one through twelve, the face was numbered zero through twenty-four.

I guess that made sense, but it definitely threw me for a moment. A smaller circle within had twelve marks, starting with a ten at the top right and ending with sixty at the top-top. So, the big hand marked out hours, twenty-four of them, and the smaller hand was for the minutes in the hour? This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Below the hands were two concentric rings, each numbered zero through nine.

They looked like they were meant to rotate, but I couldn't tell if they were moving at all. Amaryllis rubbed her chin.

"If the hands tell us how many seconds, minutes, and hours are left, then those small dials must indicate the remaining number of days," she reasoned.

"One, seven," I read off.

"Seventeen days remaining. Plus... seventeen hours, five minutes, and... nine seconds. Oh, only eight seconds, now. Seven seconds. Six seco--" Amaryllis bopped me on the head and I giggled.

"So it's counting down to something," Caprica crossed her arms.

"Any chance it's counting down to a good thing, for once?"

"It doesn't say," I said.

"What's the book about?" Amaryllis asked.

"He's obviously laying out some sort of puzzle here... For some reason. This doesn't seem like him. Why a puzzle when he's been rather direct, if secretive, before?" Awen was shooting curious looks at the timer, so I handed it back to her and picked up the book. It was filled with... words. There were a few illustrations as well, though. Strange watercoloured images of knights and pretty forests and even some dragons. Opening it up to its first pages, I found the title page. Tales of the Black Avatars.

There was an image below that of five knights in black armour, each one a little different. One was human, another looked taller and lankier, there was a grenoil as well and a cervid and even a sylph. The designs were rather cartoony, with the proportions exaggerated. They were standing on a field of little flowers; it made their all-black armour a little less intimidating.

"Do you recognize this?" I asked.

"Huh," Calamity said.

"I do."

"As do I," Desiree replied. Amaryllis stared, then nodded slowly.

"I think most people will know of this. If only as legends and children's stories."

"Do you think that maybe Rainnewt has decided to give up on his life of crime and decided to become a children's book author and that the countdown is to his first release?" I asked hopefully.

"That's wishful even for you," Caprica said.

"I'm not aware of these stories. Though I'm not too surprised, I doubt the harpy read Sophia the Sweet-tooth to their children."

"We have our own set of fairy tales and childrens' stories," Amaryllis said with a nod.

"The tales of the Black Avatars is old however. More like something my parents would have been told. What's more curious is that you recognize them." She turned towards Desiree and eyed the fox girl up and down. Desiree's tails flicked.

"Is it so strange? We don't treat the Black Avatars as children's stories so much as we treat them as legends. We have temples in their name, and a large library as well. Ah, yes, and there's an order of swordsmen that wear all-black and try to match them."

"That's a little more involved than what I remember," Calamity said.

"I mostly remember the stories of Black Cat the Black Avatar. He was a princely thief and troublemaker, and he got into all sorts of scraps." I turned towards Awen.

"Were there any stories like that around Mattergrove?" I asked.

"Um, I think so? But they were boy stories," she said.

"Boy stories?" I asked.

"Fairytales for boys, so that they grow up to be noble knights. Most of my stories were about princesses and friendly wildland animals." Awen shrugged.

"I overheard some of the other stories, but never paid them, ah, that much attention." I looked down at the book and flipped it forwards. There was a note from the author, just a couple of paragraphs explaining that they'd gone around the lower end of the continent--so Mattergrove, Deepmarsh and the Trenten Flats--and collected several stories about the Black Avatars into a single book which was then illustrated.

"I think we'll have to show this one to Booksie," I said.

"The wedding has wrapped up by now," Caprica said.

"She might be wondering where her bridesmaids are."

"Ah! You're right! We wasted so much time with this," I said.

"Desiree, can you find anything out about these flowers? Awen, let's go make sure this wedding ends on a high note for Booksie, and then... well, whatever Rainnewt is stirring up, I'm sure it can wait a day."

"Are you sure?" Amaryllis asked.

"Yeah! Bad people only deserve as much attention as you need to keep them from being bad enough to ruin your day. At least, sometimes," I said with a nod. Whatever Rainnewt tossed our way, we'd be up to fixing it, I was sure.